Global HIV Testing and Counseling Intervention Now Available

CDC acknowledges the importance of building capacity for global HIV testing and counseling (HTC) as a vital entry point to treatment, care and support services, and an important and timely opportunity for prevention education. HIV testing and counseling is a key way to for resource-constrained countries to respond to their HIV/AIDS epidemics. For World AIDS Day, CDC released a critical new resource, Couples HIV Counseling and Testing (CHCT) Intervention and Training Curriculum, to help them in this effort.

Around the world, couples HIV counseling and testing has emerged as an important intervention aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV between sex partners when one is infected and the other is not. Studies have shown that HIV counseling and testing with HIV-discordant couples is associated with increased condom use and with reduced infection rates of HIV-negative partners.

Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and in collaboration with Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group*, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine*, and other national and international partners, CDC has developed the curriculum in response to increased demand for interventions and training to help address the complex issues related to HIV counseling and testing with couples.

Working with couples can be challenging and complex, even for the most experienced counselor. The curriculum addresses the challenges of working with couples by helping counselors to build upon their existing counseling skills to help discordant couples understand their results and the importance of preventing all partners from becoming infected with HIV.

This curriculum guides trainers in covering essential topics and activities to increase the skills of counselors who see couples in voluntary counseling and testing sites.

HIV prevention counselors can assist couples by:

• Providing clear and accurate prevention messages tailored to the couple’s life stage and reasons for seeking HIV testing and counseling services

• Reducing tension and diffusing blame

• Dispelling myths about HIV transmission

• Creating an environment that is safe for disclosure of HIV status between partners

• Discussing options for disclosure of HIV status to other family members and thinking through appropriate next steps for testing children, when necessary

This CHCT Intervention and Training Curriculum was field tested in several African countries. Local co-trainers and participants in early pilot tests and subsequent revisions provided valuable feedback that was used to strengthen these training materials.

This intervention can be tailored to a country’s national HIV testing and counseling policies and guidelines; current treatment availability; local and regional circumstances; cultural norm of couples seeking HIV testing and counseling services; and current and future foreseeable trends in HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support.

In addition to HIV testing and counseling efforts that target couples, CDC is supporting countries through multiple HIV testing and counseling efforts, including client-initiated and provider-initiated models that target both the general population and specific groups including children and other family members of HIV-positive persons; tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infection patients; pregnant women; and other high-risk populations. These efforts also work to ensure effective referral services for persons who test HIV-positive or HIV-negative.

Additional Information and Resources

• Couples HIV Counseling and Testing (CHCT) Intervention and Training Curriculum
  Access the full intervention.

• CDC Global AIDS Program
  Access more information on CDC’s Global AIDS Program.

• The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
  More information on the broader PEPFAR effort.

• AIDS.gov
  Access more information on Department of Health and Human Services HIV/AIDS activities.